Latoya Ammons says she and her family were haunted by demons while living in this house in Gary, Indiana. Screengrab via Indy StarSource: Supplied

WHEN the Ammons family moved into a rental house on a quiet suburban street they had no idea they would be subjecting themselves to months of torment at the hands of "demons".

The family remains convinced that they and their house was possessed by supernatural forces - and their claims are backed up by police officers, nurses and a landlord who all say they had experiences in the home that were far from normal.

Others claim the Ammons family made up the stories in order to make money, and that mother Latoya Ammons caused her children (aged seven, nine and 12 at the time) to become "delusional" about demons possessing their bodies.

It all started in November 2011, when the family moved into the house in Gary, Indiana in the US.

According to nearly 800 pages of official records about the occurrences at the home, obtained by The Indianapolis Star, the disturbances began when large black horseflies kept swarming the house's screened-in porch, even though it was the start of winter.

"This is not normal," Ms Ammons' mother Rosa Campbell remembers thinking at the time. "We killed them and killed them and killed them, but they kept coming back."

The strange incidents did not stop there.

Ms Ammons and Ms Campbell began hearing heavy footsteps from the basement stairs, and the door at the top of the staircase creaking open.

The basement door of Ms Ammons’ home would creak open but no one was there. Screengrab via Indy StarSource: Supplied

But the first real horror came in March 2012, when Ms Campbell ran into the bedroom where her 12-year-old granddaughter and a friend were sleeping after hearing screams from Ms Ammons.

Both women said the girl was unconscious and levitating above the bed.

The family was spooked, and so they tried to enlist the help of local churches to exorcise what they thought were demons haunting their house.

Only one church would listen to their problems. Officials visited the house and agreed it was home to spirits. They suggested cleaning the house with bleach and drawing crosses in oil on every door and window.

Ms Ammons and Ms Campbell also tried to get help from clairvoyants, who said they detected the presence of more than 200 demons in the house. The clairvoyants advised them to move houses, but the Ammons family was too poor to do so.

Spirits then began to possess Ms Ammons and her three children. When it happened, the children's eyes would "bulge" and they would have evil grins on their faces. Their voices would also turn uncharacteristically deep.

The family turned to doctor Geoffrey Onyeukwu, who visited the house in April 2012.

"Twenty years, and I've never heard anything like that in my life," he said. "I was scared myself when I walked into the room."

Ms Campbell said the children began cursing Dr Onyeukwu in evil voices. The youngest boy was "lifted and thrown into the wall with nobody touching him," according to a Department of Children's Services (DCS) report.

Separately the DCS was asked to assess the family after allegations of child abuse and neglect.

According to a report written by DCS case manager Valerie Washington, which was backed up by registered nurse Willie Lee Walker, the nine-year-old was taken into a small exam room for an interview with his grandmother present.

During the interview he had a "weird grin" on his face and he walked backward up a wall to the roof. He flipped over Ms Campbell and landed on his feet, while holding onto her hand the whole time.

Rosa Campbell. Screengrab via Indy StarSource: Supplied

"He walked up the wall, flipped over her and stood there," Mr Walker told The Star. "There's no way he could've done that."

The next day the DCS took emergency custody of the children.

"We'd already been through so much and fought so hard for our lives," Ms Ammons told The Star. "It was obvious we were a team, and we were beating it - whatever we were fighting. We made it through together as a team, and they separated us."

While the children were in DCS custody the youngest was given a psychiatric evaluation.

Clinical psychologist Stacy Wright said she believed the eight-year-old did not suffer from a psychotic disorder.

"This appears to be an unfortunate and sad case of a child who has been induced into a delusional system perpetuated by his mother and potentially reinforced" by other relatives, she wrote.

Meanwhile, Ms Ammons reached out to Reverend Michael Maginot to perform an exorcism. After a four-hour visit he was convinced the family was being "tormented by demons".

Reverend Michael Maginot. Screengrab via Indy StarSource: Supplied

Rev Maginot performed three major exorcisms on Ms Ammons. The first ritual was carried out in the presence of two police officers and DCS case manager Samantha Ilic.

"We felt like someone was in the room with you, someone breathing down your neck," Ms Ilic said of the two-hour ritual.

The final exorcism was done in Latin.

"You try everything," Rev Maginot said. "You go through the whole rite to see which things push the buttons of the entity and once you find what does it you keep on using it over and over.

"Whenever you would praise God in Latin, no reaction. But you start condemning the demon, condemning the evil spirit, all of a sudden [Ms Ammons] is reacting to that."

After the ritual Ms Ammons and Ms Campbell left the home forever.

They now live happily in Indianapolis. Ms Ammons regained custody of her three children in November 2012.

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